Dwarven business
by Cyricist001
Summary: Warlords Battlecry 3 Dark Dwarves find themselves in Thedas.


Dwarven business

I own nothing

* * *

Duncan watched the life in the thriving city with interest. When he went to explore the Dead Trenches he wasn't expecting to find a dwarven settlement...or at least not one that wasn't long since abandoned thanks to the Darkspawn.

But these Dwarves or rather Dark Dwarves as they called themselves were not only resisting the darkspawn incursion, but actually expanding their domain in spite of the opposition.

From what he could understand some sort of portal transported them to this cavern around seven months ago, and since then they have been frantically working to spread their dominion through the Deep Roads.

And the influx of ore the dark dwarven engineers were constantly bringing here certainly indicated that they were succeeding.

It certainly contrasted the dwarves of Orzommar who fought fiercely to simply hold the darkspawn from overrunning their last thaig. Also a big difference between the two dwarven races was that dark dwarves could use magic, though rarely did so.

Most chose to become engineers, though they all still learned how to use one spell called Earthpower, allowing them to mold the ground and stone as it was clay and build or repair buildings with ease...in fact the city was more a over-sized, ever expanding mining operation than anything else.

Even lord Kord himself didn't hide his ambition to strip the world of all of its resources, his engineers proclaiming proudly how they will burn the forests and strip mine the land.

He personally didn't agree with their goals but he had bigger fish to fry...the sole reason he was now meeting with Kord at all.

Duncan turned around and saw the dark dwarf leader enter the room he was provided with, two engineers placed two mugs of ale and a pot filled with some sort of mushroom brew on the nearby table.

"So Duncan, what do you want to discus today?" asked the dwarven lord as he sat down and broke a piece of bread with his hands.

The Grey Warden commander has managed to gain some good will with the newcomers by showing them tunnels that were leading to the surface and were not used by the darkspawn. Unlike the dwarves of Orzommar the dark dwarves had no caste system and had nothing against going to the surface to trade and strip mine the landscape.

That allowed them to start trade with humans...though they seemed to dislike elves for some reason. With new trade routs established, caravans started to import things like wheat, timber and meat and exported metal, gold and magic items crafted by Kord himself. Duncan was also surprised when he learned that the dark dwarven lord knew how to transmute metal and stone into either crystal and gold...something that will destabilize the economy if it continued.

The dwarves were also grateful for his knowledge about lyrium since they were unfamiliar with the mineral, as well as showing them the most plentiful veins he discovered in his exploration of the subterranean realm.

And now it was time to see if Kord will prove as true a friend and ally as he hoped.

"Yes, I wish to speak with you about providing aid to the Grey Wardens against the Blight" said the bearded human as he sat on the other end of the table and took the offered ale.

Kord lowered his mug as he tried to remember what the Blight was again, after a second he remembered "Ah, the darkspawn horde. That makes things easy, the more of the trash we kill the faster my mines will expand."

Duncan nodded, unlike all other people who were sworn by oath to help the Wardens against the Blight the dark dwarves were the only group whose strength wasn't divided or in any way diminished...in fact it grew with every passing moment.

Kord stroked his beard as he moved away from the table and walked to the balcony of the Furnace. Duncan followed the lord and stopped himself from asking Kord why his people lived in a Furnace instead of a palace or anything actually designed for habitation.

From the balcony the two could see hundreds of golems working tirelessly to drive the relentless dark dwarven economy forward. Their mechanical hands making sure that the engineers didn't have to do any of the hard labor.

Those same constructs also formed the backbone of their armies in times of battle.

And Duncan wanted the golems to fight on his side...a stone golem could crush a ogre in a fight, and those were their weakest golems. There were also the much stronger iron and bronze golems who could and often did crush any darkspawn advance with impunity.

"Hundred golems, two dozen Hellbores and Flame Cannons and twenty Shadows" said Kord "how does that sound?"

The Grey Warden commander nodded "With your forces helping at Ostagar I'm sure we will be victories. Though perhaps the Shadows shouldn't be included, the Chantry will most certainly see them as abominations" _and perhaps call for a Exalted March on your people_. Plus the undead things didn't endear themselves to anyone since they considered flesh to be weak and were rather vocal about their views.

"Bah, you humans were always a bit touched in the head" snorted Kord "very well, instead of the Shadows we will send Grond with you."

"Grond?"

Kord smiled "A surprise. Don't worry though, you wont be disappointed."

Duncan nodded, he was happy to receive so many troops at all. Not only were the golems incredibly strong and resilient, but the war machines the dark dwarves made were also something else. Pure destruction on wheels...that was the best description one could come up with for them.

"I almost pity the darkspawn" said the lord as he walked back into the building "my race is known as being one of the most dangerous on the world of Etheria. Only the Undead, Demons and the Ssrathi can compete with us."

And from sixteen races that said a lot, though he skipped over the Fey out of principal. Sure they were powerful, but he would sooner eat his hammer than admit such a thing.

"You count demons and undead as a race?" asked Duncan.

"Yes. Believe me one doesn't want to mess with those two if you can help it. Hell, a Necromancer would have a field day fighting the darkspawn. I can already imagine hundreds of Doom Knights, Shadows and Liches crushing the things like toys while increasing their own numbers with every darkspawn killed."

And that wasn't him blowing it out of porportions, anyone who ever witnesed a horde of Doom Knights advancing on them knew what he was talking about. The Demons on the other hand were a pain in the neck if you allowed a bunch of Summoners to spam demons...or god forbid simply send a bazillion Imp's against you.

Also there were the sadistic Dark Elves with whom his people sometimes allied themselves with. Not the best fighters, but their sorcerers were powerful...and annoying with their 'Praise Kargoth, the destroyer of worlds' speeches. Grond would crush that over-sized bug given half a chance.

"Though it could always get worse" mussed the dark dwarf.

"How so?"

"There could be a insanely powerful Pyromancer rampaging through the battlefield spamming Armageddon spells" was Kords unamused reply.

END

* * *

A/N:

Wanted to get this idea out of my head.

Also Warlords Battlecry 3 is a great (though obscure) game...and with no max level for your heroes it means they can get insanely powerful.

The pyromancer is the perfect example of it, once you get around level 300 all you need to do is press F1 and the whole map is destroyed by the Armageddon spell, all in the first second from game start. (One of the reasons I stopped using him).

Also Grond is the dark dwarven titan. A colossal golem that can crush dragons with little effort.


End file.
